From Slo-Mo to No-Mo in Budget and Tax Negotiations

Along with most folks, I hope the headline for this post is wrong. Progress and a swift conclusion to a disappointing legislative session would be welcome. But the reports from Olympia are not encouraging.

Andrew Garber writes in the Seattle Times: The Legislature could be here a long time.

"I'm concerned we're going to be here longer than I hoped, perhaps much longer," said Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, chairman of the Senate Democratic caucus.

It's the sales tax.

Murray said Senate Democrats met Monday and reaffirmed the caucus' support for increasing the sales tax.

House leaders have said they don't have the votes to boost the sales tax. However, House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler said it may be time for her caucus to count votes again and see if there's been any change in support. "Then you'd know how rigid the impasse is," she said.

As Garber reports, Kessler supports a sales tax increase. House Speaker Frank Chopp does not.

Although the governor has been asked by Kessler to make clear her intentions regarding a sales tax veto, she has so far declined the offer. In the Everett Herald, Jerry Cornfield provides some insight into her reluctance. 

[Senate Majority Leader Lisa] Brown said for [Gregoire] to pledge a veto would draw a line in the sand between the two chambers and hamper already difficult negotiations between the Senate and House.

The governor agrees.

Gregoire continued Monday to insist the veto card is on the table but she's not inclined to play it - or announce she won't play it - because of concern it will damage the conversation between the two chambers.

"I've been trying to be as prudent with power as I can in this special session so they can get negotiating," she said.

Yet, she consistently indicates her opposition to a sales tax increase. Cornfield detects a rationale for Kessler's request for a clear signal.

There may be strategy here in trying to force the governor's hand on the veto pen. Every day she does not announce a veto is one more day for pro-sales tax lawmakers in the House to gather their forces for a possible run at a vote in the caucus.

Not sure how that works for the governor. Or how long she'll let the negotiations play out. At the Washington Ledge, Austin Jenkins also covers the sales tax politics.

[Gregoire] wouldn’t vow to veto one, at least not yet, in an effort to give both sides “room to negotiate” but clearly Senate Democrats aren’t getting her message in their private talks. At what point would she make such a public statement?

“When they’re here too long, there are a lot of things I’ll have to say,” she said.

That just leaves us to wonder how long is "too long." Guess it depends on whom you ask.